Forest landscape restoration and climate change

Restoration as a local solution with global benefits

Landscape restoration has long been overshadowed by forest conservation when it comes to ecosystem-based strategies for tackling climate change.

But now scientists and climate strategists are calling for greater recognition of the contribution of landscape restoration to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

“Let’s stop calling them ‘co-benefits’,” said Stewart Maginnis, the Global Director of Nature-based Solutions with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). “They are real, tangible benefits.”

He referred to the Bonn Challenge, an ambitious goal set in 2011 to restore 150 million hectares of forest by 2020. If met, he said, those forests would pull a gigatonne of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, in addition to boosting crop yields and protecting watershed worth billions of dollars.